S2E10 - Tess 2

Tess Lovely is a mother of five and grandmother to five girls. She healed herself from ovarian cancer when her children were young. Tess is a former NHS midwife and passionate advocate for women, physiological birth and home birth. With nearly three decades of experience working within the NHS, Tess supported women and families across countless pregnancy and birth journeys. In 2024 she chose to leave the NHS, and stepped away from the NMC in 2025, after recognising that the direction of the system no longer aligned with her core values around autonomy, informed choice and woman-centred care. Drawing on both her professional experience and her own experiences of motherhood and home birth, Tess now works independently through ⁠Birth From Within Southwest⁠. She continues to support women through pregnancy, birth and the postnatal period, while offering a much broader range of holistic support from her Birth From Within studio. Tess's work includes birth preparation, doula and birth-keeping support, hypnotherapy, women’s circles, emotional support, education, workshops and community spaces designed to help women feel informed, supported and connected to themselves. At the heart of Tess’s work is a simple belief: women deserve to feel heard, respected and supported to make informed choices about their own bodies, their births and their lives. Tess is a deeply intuitive birth worker with decades of practical experience Follow her on ⁠Instagram⁠ And listen to Tess's pod - ⁠The Good, The Bad and The Vagina⁠ Find out about Kirsten Small's work on CTG monitoring on her website If you like what I am doing, and would like to support my work, please consider ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠buying me a coffee⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ It will mean I can keep shining a light on female health and the birth world and inspiring the next generation to take back control of this sacred rite of passage